Tobacco can help stop the hair loss from cancer drugs

TOBACCO plants could be the key to allowing chemotherapy patients to keep their hair, writes Roger Dobson.

Biotechnologists have succeeded in getting the transgenic plants to grow an antibody that neutralises the hair-loss effects of the toxic chemicals used in cancer-fighting chemotherapy.

When a solution of the antibodies is rubbed into the hair and scalp before anti-cancer treatment begins, it protects and preserves the hair follicles from the aggressive toxins in the drug treatment. (S. T.)

15. In most countries, foreign languages have traditionally been taught for a small number of hours per week, but for several years on end. Modern thought on this matter suggests that telescoping language courses brings a number of unexpected advantages. Thus it seems that a course of 500 hours spread over five years is much less effective than the same course spread over one year, while if it were concentrated into six months it might produce outstanding results. One crucial factor here is the reduction in opportunities for forgetting; however, quite apart from the difficulty of making the time in school time-tables when some other subject would inevitably have to be reduced, there is a limit to the intensity of language teaching which individuals can tolerate over a protracted period. It is clear that such a limit exists; it is not known in detail how the limit varies for different individuals, nor for different age-groups, and research into these factors is urgently needed. At any rate, a larger total number of hours per week and a tendency towards more frequent teaching periods are the two aspects of intensity which are at present being tried out in many places, with generally encouraging results. (P.St.)

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